The Work of the Spirit

The point: Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you to be honest and heart-searching as you consider the text.

Martin quotes Charles Spurgeon's introduction to a sermon on Romans 8:9, emphasizing the text's solemnity, sweeping scope, and vital importance for belonging to Christ, probing the heart beyond external rites or doctrines.

Look at the text. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. On September 21st in 1873, Charles Haddon Spurgeon preached on the last part of this text, if any man has not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

12:17 - 12:55 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be lazy in your ears; pay close attention to this message, as it concerns issues of heaven and hell. If necessary, bite your lip or slap your face to stay awake.

Martin uses the analogy of biting one's lip or slapping one's face to stay awake, urging listeners to pay close attention to the sermon's crucial message about heaven and hell, rather than 'nodding off'.

For those of you accustomed about this time each Lord's Day to nod off, God have mercy on you if you nod off to sleep on issues that may be the difference between heaven and hell for you. If you need to bite your lip or slap your face, it's a little enough price to pay to save your soul.

29:27 - 29:49 Read in full sermon

The point: Be honest with yourself: are you truly living 'in the Spirit and after the Spirit,' or are you trying to avoid the implications of having no middle ground?

Martin uses the analogy of degrees to explain that while there are variations in how much believers are controlled by the Spirit, there is no 'middle category' between being 'in the flesh' and 'in the Spirit'.

when I hear passages about heaven read such as no that's not the issue the issue is this is your life characterized by living after the flesh and in the flesh or after the spirit and in the spirit that's the issue that's the issue the minding of the flesh is death it is an evidence of present spiritual death and it will lead to eternal death in that place that is called the second death even the lake of fire are you for real here's the answer if you're for real you have the Holy Spirit and if you have the Holy Spirit you are not in the flesh but in the spirit and just as surely as no man in th...

45:56 - 47:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not be content with just enough semblance of being in the Spirit to salve your conscience or convince others; desire true, radical transformation.

Martin uses the analogy of wanting 'just so much' of the semblance of being in the Spirit to salve one's conscience or convince others, but not desiring 'one gram more' of true spiritual transformation, to expose superficial religiosity.

radically relocated from the realm of the flesh to the realm of the spirit not perfectly but radically relocated not simply nudged out of a few of the grosser forms of those who live after the flesh you see the heartbreak for me standing before you is I fear perhaps more than I want to acknowledge you want just so much of the semblance of being in the spirit and after the spirit to salve your conscience that you're a Christian and convince others that you ought to be a member in good standing in this church and when you've got just that much and no more to tip the scales of your own judgment a...

50:18 - 51:46 Read in full sermon

The point: Wage war against secret sins of the heart (covetousness, lust, envy) with the same jealousy you would against public sins.

Martin uses the analogy of being as jealous to deal with a secret thought sin as one would be to deal with the temptation to rob a bank, to illustrate the depth of spiritual warfare characteristic of those indwelt by the Spirit.

say well that's not the pattern of my life but of a hunger to be as holy as a redeemed sinner can be this side of heaven you know nothing of a hunger to have of your heart of the dung of covetousness and lust known only to you and to God and of envy and of the sins of the heart of shock and grief and horror and pain about your thought life because you're not in the realm of the spirit those that are in the realm of the spirit because the Holy Spirit has marked them for perfect conformity to Christ in redemptive grace he's put within them a yearning to be now what they shall be then though they...

51:46 - 53:14 Read in full sermon